War Machine Quarter Scale Maquette From Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron now available at Sideshow

NO SPOILERS, I promise. Just a head's-up that Sideshow is now offering this ridiculously bad-ass quarter-scale War Machine maquette here on their site! Pretty damn bad ass. It's a running joke in our house that if I'm left alone, one Marvel movie or another will end up on the TV. That's just the way it is... Love those goddamn movies! Anyway, see more pics of War Machine here. Kinda expensive, but then again this thing is 22 inches tall. Pretty epic.

Lego Marvel - Iron Man 3 Extremis Sea Port Battle

(top image) Lego Marvel - Iron Man 3 Extremis Sea Port Battle box artwork, showcasing the elements of this midsized playset. (second image) Box contents: Single instruction manual, Lego Marvel comic book, small sheet of stickers, and two poly bags of Lego parts.

So I know this last time I said I was going to cover some Sega stuff, but because I am still locating some of my collection so that I can make some nice thematic entries on here for both Sega and the Pixar Cars line that I will cover in the future, I have no end of Lego Playsets and items at hand, that are currently ready and waiting for review. So we'll start off with a fun little set, the "Lego Marvel - Iron Man 3 Extremis Sea Port Battle" (Set 76006).

I'll start off by saying that Lego has really done a great job with the Marvel license, but to be honest, very little of what Lego ever creates is bad. That's not a fan boy kind of observation either. Sure, they've had odd fumbles (in some people's opinions, like Fabuland), but I am speaking to the aspects of the amount of care and detail that Lego will put forth to not only capture the essence of the intellectual properties they reinterpret, but how flawlessly each piece will work across the spectrum in all playsets they put out. FEW companies can boast a toyline that will go across generations and work as well together no matter if the set was from 1980 to this one based on Iron Man 3.

(upper left) The helmets were polybagged separately, and are so freaking cool. (upper right) Some of the more unique parts, in this case the transparent ends used for the missiles on the Mandarin's boat. (larger lower image and smaller corner image) Stickers seem to be the norm on limited and/or licensed sets. Probably more of a factor that it saves on cost to produce a sticker sheet and have the model builder adhere them, than have custom tampo details pre done on the parts.

The best part of course with so many of the new licenses that Lego acquires, is that often new and unique pieces or colors (like "Medium Lilac" which is a brick color that is used primarily in sets featuring the DC Comics character, the Joker, as well as the Knight Bus vehicle set from Harry Potter [sets 4755 and 4866]). Right off the bat though to have Iron Man and War Machine minifigs were already getting me all geeky happy!

(top left) Playset element of a sea bouy that has an "exploding" function. (top right, middle right, larger lower image) When you first start putting the Mandarin's speedboat together, it looks a little garish in color choices of bricks... but looks pretty darn slick once you finish it up. (inset left inside) Not a lot of extra parts after everything is assembled in this set, but some rather helpful ones that can round out the details to add to your custom builds or add more flair to maybe this set. I should bedazzle the boat...

The two playset elements above are nice, well constructed and engineered. No complaints on my part for assembly, but I did find the boat at first to be a little cumbersome in one step to finish assembling the bottom aspect, but that could easily have been me overlooking a step in the instructions.

(top image) Iron Man, Mandarin, and War Machine from the Lego Marvel - Iron Man 3 Extremis Sea Port Battle set. (bottom image) shown with more dramatic lighting, minus transparent feet and hand bricks, and open face plates.

The minifigs in this set did not disappoint. The details that Lego threw into them are really spot on. Great streamlined takes on the armors from the movie, and some crazy cool detail to the Mandarins face... but wait, there's more...

All of the heads have dual expressions, as per most of the licensed sets recently, and the expressions, especially Tony Stark's are pretty funny. But, the Mandarin takes this one on the basis that his head glows!

So, there's my review on the Lego Marvel - Iron Man 3 Extremis Sea Port Battle set. Not a bad buy if you can find it, and it usually retails for around $17 to $29 depending on the retail store.

Until next time!

-Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Twitter: @theartisanrogue